Question about active high beam assist...
06-24-2012, 11:18 PM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Loony left coast
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2012 E550 Coupe
Question about active high beam assist...
I live in a rural area and use the high beams regularly. When a car approaches me from the other direction, I always dim the high beams manually because the active high beam assist doesn't seem to be working. How close does the opposing car have to be to activate the sensor? I'm always afraid I'm going to blind someone so I dim them immediately. I've gone through the menu system and double checked and the feature is "enabled". Is there a way to test it? Shine a flashlight into the sensor? 
06-25-2012, 06:55 AM
#2
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Nottingham, England, UK
Posts: 520
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
2 Posts
B8.5 Audi S5 3.0 TFSI Coupe
The light-level sensor is at the top of the windscreen where the rain sensor would be, it only works above 30mph to actively raise and dip the beams, but if your car is at such a level of pitch that the sensor points up to the sky and not the car, the high beams will be activated, potentially blinding the oncoming driver/traffic.
I tried to use it for the first few months of having my car but gave up.. it is far too inconsistent when there is one odd street lamp that catches the attention of the sensor then the lights would dip then raise, which was pointless.
Much quicker to react using the high-beams manually, I've seen a few of these cars in passing at night and the lights on dipped beams are pretty bright so I feel sorry for people when they get dazzled by someone using the slow-reacting adaptive system.
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was an amazing function when I first got the car but over here when your lights are bright at night often oncoming traffic will flash at you to make a point that you may have forgot your high-beams are on, sometimes they leave their high-beams on which can effectively blind you whereas your car won't switch your beams on to signal back to the other person to cut it out... see the problem? Great in theory but not so in reality.
I tried to use it for the first few months of having my car but gave up.. it is far too inconsistent when there is one odd street lamp that catches the attention of the sensor then the lights would dip then raise, which was pointless.
Much quicker to react using the high-beams manually, I've seen a few of these cars in passing at night and the lights on dipped beams are pretty bright so I feel sorry for people when they get dazzled by someone using the slow-reacting adaptive system.
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was an amazing function when I first got the car but over here when your lights are bright at night often oncoming traffic will flash at you to make a point that you may have forgot your high-beams are on, sometimes they leave their high-beams on which can effectively blind you whereas your car won't switch your beams on to signal back to the other person to cut it out... see the problem? Great in theory but not so in reality.
06-25-2012, 06:18 PM
#3
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: East Bay, CA
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2010 E550 Coupe Arctic White P2 Appearance
Mine are on Auto all the time and they Dim all the time when another car approaches and I never have had the other car flash their Hi-
beams at me.
beams at me.
06-27-2012, 10:07 PM
#5
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Loony left coast
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2012 E550 Coupe
The light-level sensor is at the top of the windscreen where the rain sensor would be, it only works above 30mph to actively raise and dip the beams, but if your car is at such a level of pitch that the sensor points up to the sky and not the car, the high beams will be activated, potentially blinding the oncoming driver/traffic.
I tried to use it for the first few months of having my car but gave up.. it is far too inconsistent when there is one odd street lamp that catches the attention of the sensor then the lights would dip then raise, which was pointless.
Much quicker to react using the high-beams manually, I've seen a few of these cars in passing at night and the lights on dipped beams are pretty bright so I feel sorry for people when they get dazzled by someone using the slow-reacting adaptive system.
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was an amazing function when I first got the car but over here when your lights are bright at night often oncoming traffic will flash at you to make a point that you may have forgot your high-beams are on, sometimes they leave their high-beams on which can effectively blind you whereas your car won't switch your beams on to signal back to the other person to cut it out... see the problem? Great in theory but not so in reality.
I tried to use it for the first few months of having my car but gave up.. it is far too inconsistent when there is one odd street lamp that catches the attention of the sensor then the lights would dip then raise, which was pointless.
Much quicker to react using the high-beams manually, I've seen a few of these cars in passing at night and the lights on dipped beams are pretty bright so I feel sorry for people when they get dazzled by someone using the slow-reacting adaptive system.
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was an amazing function when I first got the car but over here when your lights are bright at night often oncoming traffic will flash at you to make a point that you may have forgot your high-beams are on, sometimes they leave their high-beams on which can effectively blind you whereas your car won't switch your beams on to signal back to the other person to cut it out... see the problem? Great in theory but not so in reality.
06-28-2012, 06:51 AM
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Nottingham, England, UK
Posts: 520
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
2 Posts
B8.5 Audi S5 3.0 TFSI Coupe
if the roads are flat then yeah, works very well, but if you have corners and variations in the heights of the terrain then it isn't so good my salesman even told me that when I was buying, honesty counts for something right?
The adaptive lights/intelligent lighting system is just fancy wording for bi-xenons in my eyes, so don't worry it isn't a silly question to ask if it dips the high beam to low but that is exactly what it does, best thing to do to see it working is to go drive down a dark-ish road over 30mph where you've got no traffic then switch the beams on and off whilst the lights are set to Automatic, you'll see how it raises and lowers the beam. Then compare it to switching the lights to "On" and activating the high beams, it is more instant doing it that way but then you have to control it.
The adaptive lights/intelligent lighting system is just fancy wording for bi-xenons in my eyes, so don't worry it isn't a silly question to ask if it dips the high beam to low but that is exactly what it does, best thing to do to see it working is to go drive down a dark-ish road over 30mph where you've got no traffic then switch the beams on and off whilst the lights are set to Automatic, you'll see how it raises and lowers the beam. Then compare it to switching the lights to "On" and activating the high beams, it is more instant doing it that way but then you have to control it.
06-29-2012, 06:37 AM
#7
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Brabus D6S Cabrio, Hartge M5 Touring
I live in a rural area and get on fine with mine. They seem to react pretty quickly to oncoming cars but do get cought out sometimes by reflections off road signs, etc.
Certainly cuts some of the stress out of nightime driving.
Only issue I have with it is that the high beam only kicks in above 45km/hr which is no good when you're on a slow single track road and you want to see where you're going!
Certainly cuts some of the stress out of nightime driving.
Only issue I have with it is that the high beam only kicks in above 45km/hr which is no good when you're on a slow single track road and you want to see where you're going!
